Ceremony marks 16th anniversary of the massacre at Srebrenica

Srebrenica
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Today, July 11th, marks the 16th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre where over 8,000 Bosniak men lost their lives in the biggest mass murder since the second World War.

Around this date in 1995, over a period of 5 days and under the command of General Ratko Mladic, Bosnian Serb forces killed over 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys and today mourners gathered to remember them on the first anniversary since Mladic was captured and put on trial at the Hague.

Today, speaking in Bosnia and representing the British Government, Baroness Warsi said;

We are here on this sad occasion to mark the sixteenth anniversary of the worst atrocity in Europe in recent memory.

Today we remember more than eight thousand Bosniak men and boys killed on this soil during the genocide of 1995.

Later today, more than six hundred burials will take place across the street at the Potočari memorial cemetery.

Many of the families burying their loved ones have spent more than a decade seeking the truth about their deaths.

My thoughts, those of my Government and of the whole international community are with these people today.

Those who were killed, those who suffered and all those who lost loved ones.

Srebrenica is a name that now resonates around the world as a lesson in the consequences of unchecked evil.

The ceremony at Potocari, just north of Srebrenica, saw the remains of 613 victims of the massacre buried. Up to 4,000 of the victims remains have been discovered, identified and buried at the memorial centre.

Ratko Mladic was captured in late May this year and extradited to the Hague on May 31 ending a 16-year hunt for him after he was indicted by the War Crimes tribunal in 1995. His trial at the Hague began on June 3 2011.